"Thank you from the bottom of my heart": Physical: Asia star Nonoka from Team Japan expresses her gratitude for the experience on the show

Physical: Asia, the first international spin-off of Netflix’s Physical: 100, concluded on November 18, 2025, with Team Korea’s victory. 

Among the other seven countries that could not emerge victorious was Japan, which was able to reach the semi-finals. Unfortunately, their time on the show ended there, as the two finalists, Korea and Mongolia, overpowered them and advanced. 

On November 19, 2025, Team Japan’s Nonoka Ozaki took to Instagram to express her gratitude for the experience and for being able to compete on such a platform. 

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Sending big love to all the athletes from the seven countries who fought with us,” she wrote. 

Nonoka continued by thanking her fans and everyone else “around the world” who supported her. 

“Thank you each and every one of you, I hope I can return to this stage again someday,” she added. 

The Physical: Asia competitor is a freestyle national team wrestler, who is most renowned for winning the bronze medal at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. However, that is not all, as Nonoka has won two gold medals at the World Wrestling Championships and two more at the Asian Wrestling Championships. 

Physical: Asia: Team Japan’s Nonoka and other athletes open up about their journey on the show, expressing gratitude for the opportunity

In the November 19 Instagram post, Nonoka started by saying how “truly grateful” she was to everyone who contributed to making the show, including the athletes and those who worked behind the cameras. 

As a wrestler, Nonoka had never experienced the thrill of representing a team or the joy of fighting on someone’s behalf, since wrestling “is an individual sport.”

However, it was through Physical: Asia, she said, that she discovered “how amazing it is to fight for someone else.”

On the Netflix show, athletes competed in individual and group challenges, representing their own countries.

Every performance mattered as the fate of the entire group relied on every single player of the team. 

“During the competition, my team became like family to me, and I love them all so much,” Nonoka added. 

She went on to thank all her co-stars, hoping she could return to “this stage again someday.”

In a separate post, shared on the same day, Nonoka put up pictures of how her body mould was sculpted. In the caption, she wrote:

“I fought with pride representing Japan. I wish I could’ve taken my little torso buddy home with me…”

Judo athlete Soichi Hashimoto from Team Japan expressed a similar sentiment. He took to Instagram on the same day, and wrote that it did not matter “which country you’re from, your gender, or your body type.”

Ultimately, it came down to the competition and the experience, and Soichi was “proud” to have represented his country. 

“I’m proud that I was able to fight with everything I had for the team,” he wrote. 

At the same time, Soichi was glad that he had the opportunity to meet the “best teammates.” However, above all, he was thankful for receiving the opportunity and the platform to be a “member of Physical: Asia.”

 MMA fighter Kana Watanabe was equally grateful, as she took to Instagram on November 18 to share her honest feelings.

“Thank you so much for all the support and messages. And thank you to my fellow Japanese team members!! Being part of this team is a treasure to me,” she concluded. 

Later, she shared a different post, which she captioned with how rare the opportunity to appear on a Netflix show was. 

Although Team Japan did not leave with a victory, Kana was happy and proud of how she and her teammates performed. 

Stay tuned for more updates.